Chapter 99

The last two months of Phil’s sophomore year passed in a haze of baseball games and classes. The weather got warmer and the days got longer. Phil was gone as often as he was home – sometimes leaving for class in the early morning and not returning until after midnight.

The baseball team was better than it had been for the past few seasons but no one was counting on a berth to the Small College World Series. Still, Phil had fun. It was nice to be around guys since he was around women almost all other times.

He was also glad to reconnect with Bob Prohl, who was spending as much time at the house as Phil did. Ted, Stacy and Emma were also frequent visitors – particularly after the Spring Break adventures. Taylor Ramsey and Emma Thomas began dating – much to her father’s dismay. He had never accepted Ted Billings as his older daughter’s boyfriend – and Emma was his baby.

It didn’t matter to him that Emma’s grades were stellar and she had no repeats of her summer escapades. Phil’s family stayed with them for a few days and Madison and Danielle both seemed to enjoy spending time with Hailey and the group.

Phil didn’t get to visit as much as he liked but Hailey filled him on the week when he finally got the chance to sit down with her on Sunday evening.

Still, by the end of the semester, Phil was tired. He was looking forward to the conference tournament, the end of his finals and a few days of rest.

“We’re having a pool party the weekend before finals,” Hailey informed him as they sat down for breakfast. Phil had arrived after two in the morning and Hailey had already been asleep.

“We’ll be in Denton for a makeup doubleheader,” Phil informed her.

“No!” Hailey said. “You’re scheduled at home that day.”

“We were,” Phil said, frowning. “Stevenson is already guaranteed a bye in the first round. Right now we’re tied with Denton and we have no head-to-head games to break the tie. They told us last night. We’re leaving straight from West Lindley on Friday afternoon. We’re playing at 10 and again at one. If we split, we’re playing a tiebreaker at four.”

“Damn it!” Hailey muttered. She had done her best to be supportive for the preceding three months but Phil had rarely been around to enjoy her support.

“I’m sorry,” Phil said.

“Katelyn is going to be pissed,” Hailey replied. “She hasn’t even seen Bob since last Thursday. He had a huge exam yesterday so he stayed at the dorm Sunday night.”

“I’ll be back around 10 if we don’t need a third game,” Phil offered. “Otherwise it might be two or three in the morning. There’s no reason you can’t have a pool party, though.”

“We were only going to have it so we could spend time with you guys,” Hailey offered. She glanced up as Tiffany and Molly came into the room. She immediately turned to them.

“Phil is going to be out of town on Saturday,” she announced.

Phil suddenly had three frowns pointed in his direction.

“It’s not like I set the schedule!” he said plaintively. He explained the situation as he’d done earlier.

“If you hadn’t got the crap kicked out of you against Stevenson last week, you wouldn’t be in a tie,” Tiffany noted.

“And if your aunt had a dick she’d be your uncle,” Phil replied with a shrug. “I did get the crap kicked out of me, though, so here we are. They didn’t ask me, I can tell you that. I would have voted we just cede the first-round bye and get the season over. We’ve played 22 games in 30 days and I’m tired. I would prefer to sit around the pool with a group of women in bikinis than listen to Bob snore.”

“I just feel like I haven’t seen you in a month,” Hailey said in a sad voice.

“Our schedules have been screwy,” Phil said. “It’s been the same for all of us. When I had a night off, you were at a Beta Club fundraiser or you had an exam to study for or you’d already made other plans. I’ve had a few evenings off; they didn’t just match the evenings you had free.”

“I know,” Hailey said. “So you don’t think you’ll go far in the tournament?”

“I don’t think so,” Phil admitted. “You never know. We could get hot, particularly if we get the bye. We’re one pitcher short to play five games in eight days. If we can get it down to four games though, it’s possible. Still, Stevenson is a really good team. I’m not the only pitcher who got the crap kicked out of him by those guys.”

“I’m sorry about that,” Tiffany said sincerely. “I was just venting.”

“No problem,” Phil said, with a smile. “We can always pray for rain on Saturday.”

“Which isn’t going to make a pool party very likely,” Hailey pointed out. “We’ll just make the best of it.”

Phil nodded because it was all they could do.

Phil didn’t take his exams with his classmates. As a member of one of the school’s in-season athletic program, Phil was able to take his exams while being proctored by a liaison from the academic congress.

He took two of his tests in a study hall session during the first day of the conference tournament. Heilman had won both games against Denton and earned a first-round bye. That let them stay in town for an extra day. Phil had treated Hailey to a nice dinner and she had treated him with a night of passion.

The last two exams would be administered in the middle of the tournament. If Heilman won in the second round, they would play the next night and Phil would take his exams in the morning and afternoon. If they lost, Phil would take his exams when the team arrived at school the following day.

The manager decided to start his more experienced pitcher in the first game so Phil started in right field. The team they played had finished 11^th in the 12-team league but had defeated the fifth-ranked team, Denton, in the opening round.

As the females were packing up to return to Calder City, Phil was watching his team implode. The opposition’s pitcher was on top of his game and Heilman couldn’t get on track. Their season ended with a 3-1 loss. Phil and his teammates sat on the bench for several minutes after the defeat. The team had won 18 of 28 games. It had gone 10-6 in the conference and they finished the same way as the season before – when the team had lost 22 of 31 games on the year.

Ted sat and shook his head slowly. He probably would never play competitive baseball again in his life. He was headed off to the military in less than a month. Two other seniors were done with the sport, too. They would have stayed in the dugout longer but the next team needed it. As it was, they were silent on the trip back to the hotel.

Phil walked down to the lobby to give Bob some privacy. He called Hailey and left a voicemail. She was in a study session for an exam, which would come the following day. He sat there at the pool until she called him back.

“You lost?” she asked incredulously.

“Yep,” Phil said. “Ted took it pretty hard. I think it finally sunk in that he was done with baseball except as a fan.”

“You crushed that team twice during the regular season!” Hailey exclaimed.

“They must have learned from it,” Phil told her. “Their pitcher was solid today. We played OK but we just couldn’t get on base. We’re leaving early in the morning. I should be back around noon. I have to take my exams as soon as we get back but even then I should be home by four.”

Hailey was still trying to take in the fact that Phil would be all hers the following night. In three days, they would be back in Calder City at the penthouse. She smiled to herself.

“My last exam is Thursday morning but I’m in good shape for it,” Hailey said. “Maybe we can go out tomorrow night.”

“I’d like that,” Phil said. “I’ve really missed spending time with you. Even though we live together it felt like we never saw each other.”

“I know,” Hailey agreed. “I’d see you for a few minutes at breakfast and a few minutes before bed. Even when we did see each other we were rushing off somewhere else. You’re not the only one who was entirely too busy this spring. I took on too much responsibility for Beta Club and it likely is going to get worse next year. Still, we’ll know what to expect and we’ll do better.”

“I was a little worried that you might be getting tired of never seeing me,” Phil admitted.

“I’m not,” Hailey cut in.

“I know you weren’t happy that our plans changed so frequently,” Phil said. “Since we got back from Spring Break, it’s been crazy. We kept changing our schedule to fit in early-season games that got snowed out. I was told it might be that way but I didn’t think it would be that bad. I’m not sure I’m going to play next year.”

“Don’t say that,” Hailey told him. “You had a great time. You made a lot of new friends. Plus I really enjoyed going to the games. I wish you’d had more home games on the weekends but I really liked going to the games you had – we all did. We’ll plan our Sundays better next year. I’ll do more studying during the week. We’ll do cookouts and things like that instead of all heading our separate ways.”

“I did enjoy it,” Phil confessed. “Still, in the grand scheme of things, it’s not worth losing you over.”

“And you’re not going to,” Hailey assured him. “I love you and I’m not going anywhere unless you send me away. Yeah, I was frustrated but I can see it was as much my responsibility to make time for you as it was yours to make time for me. I didn’t do that very well. I wasn’t sure how hard it would be but I do now. You know, it’s going to be the same way this summer. We’re going to be very busy with work. I can already see that your mom is going to give us a lot of responsibility. She showed that over Christmas Break. I think she’s already planning it out to where we’re the faces of Barton Holdings.”

“Yeah, I got that,” Phil muttered.

“It’ll be fun!” Hailey insisted. “You’ll be great. Besides, we’ll be together.”

“True,” Phil agreed, smiling slightly. “Uh, I was thinking maybe we could go away together for a few days before we dig in at Barton. I was thinking about how nice it was last summer when you and I came down alone to open the house. I know I haven’t really spent time with anyone for a while but I want this to be just you and me – if you’re OK with that.”

“I’m fine with it!” Hailey said enthusiastically. “Where were you thinking?”

She wondered if Phil wanted to just stay behind while everyone else went to Calder City. She wouldn’t be opposed to that idea, she decided.

“Anywhere,” Phil answered. “We can go to New York, if you want. Hell, we can go to Paris if you’d like that better. I want to take you somewhere you’ve always wanted to go.”

Hailey laughed at how excited her boyfriend seemed at the idea.

“Well, I don’t have a passport so we’ll have to stay in the United States,” she replied. “Still, that opens up a lot of possibilities. I don’t have a lot of money left over after Spring Break so we’ll talk about when you get home tomorrow.”

“No,” Phil cut in. “I have plenty of money so we’re not going to worry about that.”

“I do worry about that,” Hailey explained.

“Then stop it,” Phil told her with a laugh.

“I don’t want to be lumped in with the other people who’ve tried to catch your eye,” Hailey said in a tiny voice.

“And you’re not,” Phil said. “Look, we’ve been together for a year. I didn’t get to take you out on our anniversary because I was away. You’re nothing like anyone else I’ve ever met. Jesus, you’ve stuck with me through some pretty screwed-up stuff and look at us.”

“You’ve stuck with me through just as much,” Hailey mentioned.

“That’s ancient history,” Phil told her. “It’s been nine months since I’ve even had a reason to be irked at you, let alone pissed off about anything. I’m not worried about you dropping me for someone else; I’m not worried that you’re using me for my money and that you’ll leave me when you get enough of it. I am, however, worried that I’ve screwed up my priorities and hurt our relationship. Hailey, baseball is done for me in two more years – maybe sooner than that. You’re not. I don’t ever want you to feel like you’re second best to me because you aren’t. I love you above everything. I haven’t done a very good job of showing you that in the past few months.

“I didn’t compliment you on your new haircut last week. I noticed it and thought it looked great but you were talking about something else and I had to leave before I got the chance. I haven’t even mentioned how nice your butt looks in those red shorts you wore the other day or tell you how proud I am of you for juggling all your other activities, getting a perfect GPA and managing to win election to the Beta Club leadership. I wanted to do all of those things. I feel all of those things but either I was rushing out the door or you were.

“So I want to take you anywhere you want to go – to do anything you want to do – to show you how much I appreciate you. It doesn’t make up for neglecting you but it’s what I can do right now. I’ll try to make up for it by not taking you for granted again.”